Maps
by WeaponFanfic
Summary: After two mistakes in the virtualization process, Jeremie decides that it's time to remap Lyoko. Episode 4 of The Reset Arc.
1. Cartography

**Maps**

_After two mistakes in the virtualization process, Jeremie decides that it's time to remap Lyoko. Episode 4 of The Reset Arc._

Disclaimer: Code Lyoko was created by Tania Palumbo and Thomas Romain. It was produced by Antefilms and then by MoonScoop. It is aired in France by France 3 and in America by Cartoon Network. The author is neither employed by or affiliated with any of the above companies or entities. All characters, locales, and other non-original entities are property of the parties mentioned above. All rights reserved.

* * *

Jeremie Belpois sat under a tree in the middle of the school courtyard. It was still part of the lunch hour in Kadic Academy and he and his friends had all finished their lunches early. Instead of spending the remainder of the time sitting at their usual table in the lunch room, Jeremie had suggested they spend the rest of the time outside, enjoying the wonderful weather of the day. The sun was shining brightly and the sounds of nature mixed in perfectly with the sounds of a bustling metropolis, creating a melody of urban tranquility. Aside from enjoying the scenery, however, Jeremie called everyone together for another reason entirely.

"Alright, Einstein, what's this big thing you have to tell us about?" Odd asked.

The boy genius adjusted his glasses. "Actually, it's two things," he explained. "First off, ever since Lyoko got rebuilt by XANA, I've been making some errors calculating where you're all virtualized to. Not only are you guys too far from the tower to effectively shut it down right away, you're also materializing into completely different sectors than what I'm reading in the supercomputer."

"Not a big deal," Ulrich said nonchalantly. "We still show up where the tower is and we got them all shut down."

"Maybe not a big deal now," Jeremie continued, "but we've been lucky so far. I don't want to press my luck and make a fatal mistake like sending you to the middle of the digital sea when the supercomputer tells me you're in the desert sector."

Ulrich nodded. "Agreed. So how do you suppose we fix this?"

"We remap Lyoko," he proposed. "The maps that were in the supercomputer weren't made by us and are obviously very old and outdated now. It's time we upgrade them. I programmed a new device that will let us remap all of Lyoko but only when activated in the middle of the digital sea."

"Great idea," Yumi added, "except for the part about us going to the sea. How do you suggest we set off this thing without getting ourselves killed?"

Jeremie grinned. "I'm glad you asked." He pulled out his laptop and punched a few keys, bringing up a wireframe display of a large vehicle. "I've finally got the skid back up and running... with a few improvements, of course. We should be able to traverse more of the digital sea thanks to this more sturdy version of the skidbladnir."

The warriors all looked at the wireframe model and nodded in approval. With the exception of Aelita, none of them fully understood the changes that Jeremie did to the design but they all liked the fact that he didn't just make a clone of the vehicle with all of the same strengths and weaknesses.

"So, let me guess," Ulrich said. "You want us to head out tonight for this cartography mission, am I right?"

Jeremie nodded. "That is, of course, if we all have the time to do it tonight."

The group all looked at each other, seeing whether or not any of them would protest. "I think we're all free tonight," Aelita spoke for everyone else. "I mean, it shouldn't take that long, right?"

"Great. Meet up at the factory after school?" he asked.

Everyone else nodded just as the bell rang to go back to class. As they walked to their respective classrooms, Odd turned to Ulrich. "Cartography?" he asked.

"Yeah" he responded. "Someone who makes maps."

"I know what the word means," he stated. "I didn't know that you did. Remind me to thank Yumi for actually teaching you something when you two are alone."

Ulrich looked at his friend strangely. "And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Nothing." Odd ran forward to put some distance between himself and the foot aimed straight for his rear.


	2. Relaunching the Skid

The group found themselves at the abandoned factory a few moments after school had ended. They sat around for a few moments as Jeremie prepared everything he needed for the mission. Minutes later, he gathered everyone for a mission briefing.

"Alright everyone, here's the plan. I've got the skid ready and equipped with the mapping tools I need: four nanobot automatic cartography devices." Jeremie pulled up a display of the device on the monitor. It was a spherical device with blunt spikes all over the body.

"So we have NACDs on the skid?" Odd interrupted. "That's a terrible name. We need to call them something cooler. Something like a map mine. How about a map bomb?"

"Fine," Jeremie conceded, "it's a map bomb. Anyway, I need you guys to place these things in four specific locations." After punching a few keys, he walked over to the holographic display in front of the supercomputer terminal. In between the spaces separating each ring segment was a glowing red dot. "The red dots here will be the spots where the devices need to be deployed."

"Wait a minute," Odd interrupted again. "This hologram here is a map of Lyoko? As in, all this time we were fighting XANA on tiny strips of land surrounded by a huge digital sea?"

"What else did you think it was?" Yumi asked.

Odd shrugged his shoulders "I don't know. I just didn't realize that Lyoko was so... empty. You know, aside from the big lump in the middle, that is."

Yum slapped him on the back of the head in order to get him to be quiet for he rest of the briefing. "Sorry for Odd's interruptions, Jeremie. Please continue."

Jeremie cleared his throat as Odd rubbed the back of his head. "Once all four devices have been set, I'll set them all off simultaneously and let the nanobots work their magic, giving us a more complete, updated map of Lyoko. Any questions?"

"Why can't you set them off as soon as we deploy them in the marked spots?" Aelita asked.

"The nanobots don't have a propulsion system of their own," Jeremie explained. "At least, they don't have one strong enough to get them from their source to their destination. The devices explode like a grenade, giving them enough force to help them on their journey by spreading them all over the place. Unfortunately, the force wave works like an electromagnetic pulse blast. If you happen to get caught up in the blast, there's a good chance that the skid will lose all power, causing you to drift aimlessly in the sea forever. That's why I won't set them off until the skid is docked and you guys are back here on Earth."

Ulrich raised a question of his own. "What about XANA?" he asked. "Can he destroy the map bombs or posses the nanobots?"

Jeremie nodded his head. "I've got my computer back in the dorm donating it's power to shielding the devices once they reach their destinations. Once I detonate them from here, the blast should render XANA's creatures useless just like it will the skid. However, the devices are still vulnerable until you set them in the marked spots. If XANA destroys the device, the nanobots will only be able to map their immediate area before dying out. It'll be useless for us then but it'll also make it useless for XANA, so he definitely won't bother possessing them then."

Yumi shook her head. "I got a bad feeling that this simple mission isn't going to be so simple."

"Let's get to the skid and get it done then," Ulrich said as the group took the elevator down to the scanning room. Jeremie punched a few more keys on the terminal as each warrior stepped into their respective pod. With a familiar gust of wind blasting through the scanning chamber and a ring of white light moving over their bodies, each of them took the journey to the virtual world, transforming from ordinary students into super heroes.

Jeremie picked up the headset and adjusted the microphone. "Testing 1, 2, 1, 2. Can you guys read me?"

"Loud and clear," Ulrich answered. "We're all in the docking bay."

The boy genius breathed a sigh of relief. This was one time where he really didn't want the virtualization program to malfunction. "I'll be sending the skid over," he announced. "Standby."

Each of the Lyoko warriors stood on a different platform of the staging area, waiting for the vehicle to appear. Moments later, each of them disappeared from the platform and rematerialized inside the skid. Ulrich, Odd and Yumi took seats in the nav skids while Aelita occupied the cockpit of the skid itself. "Ready for deployment," relayed Aelita.

Jeremie sat ready at his keyboard. "Skid deploying in 3, 2, 1." The magnetic clamps that held the skid in the dock had deactivated, sending the vehicle spiraling down towards the digital sea. Soon, the vessel crashed into the water, engulfing the ship in a liquid that was harmless to everyone but the passengers inside. Aelita activated the engines, causing the skid to propel itself through the waters. A few moments later, the docking bay doors opened, giving the warriors access to the digital oceans of Lyoko.

"Entry into the digital sea complete," Aelita announced. "All systems stabilized and all crew members accounted for."

"Excellent job, Aelita. I'm sending you the deployment coordinates now." Jeremie tapped on a few keys to initiate the data sending process. Once he was done, the data appeared on the screens of all of the vehicle parts that made up the skidbladnir. "I've marked of each section accordingly," he continued. "You're currently in section one. Go through the numerical order listed on screen. By the time you finish deploying the map bomb in section four, you should be near a docking station. Once you enter the dock, I'll devirtualize you and we can detonate the bombs."

"Roger that," she responded. Aelita activated the engines once more and headed for the first bomb deployment section on the map. As she progressed forward, she was glad to see that while the mapping program for the sectors themselves had been outdated, the layout of the sea itself had not changed too much. Looking at the map, she realized that she was not that far from the bomb deployment site in section one. Before she knew it, she had already reached her destination. "We're here at the first deployment site, Jeremie," she said.

Jeremie looked at his own screen to verify their location. "You should find the bomb deployment command on your heads-up display."

The pink-haired pilot found the command on the right side of the display and hit it. A bay on the underside of the skid began to open, revealing the spiked metallic sphere the group saw earlier. The bomb began to make the descent into the desired spot, guided by a magnetic rod attached to the top of the device. Once the bomb was placed into the correct spot, the rod shut off it's magnetic force, causing the sphere to bob within the water. "Bomb deployed" she reported.

Jeremie switched over to another window and gained access to his desktop computer back in his dorm room. Accessing it remotely, he executed the shielding command, causing his desktop computer to program a shield around the deployed map bomb. "Shielding activated," he stated.

Aelita piloted the skid away from the bomb site then turned it around to get a better view of the device. She saw a green wireframe model surround the sphere, The wireframe model was soon replaced with a green gelatinous substance with lines of code visible on the surface. "Shielding confirmed. Looks like the program's working," she stated.

"Not quite," he said. "We need to perform a test to make sure that XANA won't get his hands on the bomb when you leave the area. I need one of you guys to try and shoot the bomb."

"What?" Ulrich exclaimed.

Jeremie nodded as he sat in his chair. "Try and shoot the bomb. If your laser blasts can't get past the shield, then we know that XANA's goons can't get past it. Otherwise, if you can destroy the device, we know we can't leave this thing alone and the mission will have to be aborted," he explained. "So, who wants to volunteer for the job?"

"I'll do it," Odd voiced out. "I might not get to shoot anything else during this mission anyway."

Aelita disabled the locking mechanism for his nav skid. "Lock disabled. It's all yours, Odd."

"Thanks, princess," he replied as he moved away from the skid and aimed for the device. "Hey, Red Leader, I've turned off my targeting computer."

"Would you just shoot the thing already!" Yumi said sternly.

"Yumi, Yumi, Yumi. I find your lack of faith in me... disturbing."

"I swear, when we..."

Odd grinned as he shut off the communication systems to silence out Yumi's ranting. He grabbed the joystick and pulled the trigger, firing off two laser blasts at the bomb. As the lasers made contact with the shielding, they reduced their velocity, slowing them down considerably. During this time, the blasts began to disintegrate until the lasers were completely gone. "Looks like the shields worked," he relayed as he turned his communication systems back on. "My laser shots are gone."

Jeremie pumped his fist into the air, ecstatic to see that his shielding program had worked flawlessly. "Good job. Head back to the skid so that you guys can get to section two." With that, Odd docked his vessel back onto the skidbladnir and joined everyone else on the journey to section two.


	3. Non Hostile Life

Odd yawned as he moved restlessly in his cockpit. "How much longer?" he asked.

"Patience, Odd," Aelita said. "We just got done putting up the second map bomb."

"Yeah, but I wish I wasn't right about what I said earlier," he whined. He was correct, though. After placing two map bombs in the digital sea, things were relatively quiet. No alerts were reported by Jeremie. No hostile creatures were seen in the area and no other signs of resistance could be detected. The mission was moving along much better than expected.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll give you my pudding cup when we get dinner," Jeremie offered.

"Deal," Odd responded as everyone else laughed. Just then, an alert sounded in the control room. Jeremie took notice and saw a few dots coming in range of the skid.

"Heads up, everyone," he warned. "We got company."

"I see them," Aelita said, looking at her radar. "I've got a series of bogeys coming in from our six and coming in fast."

Ulrich and the rest of the crew sat up in their cockpits, grasping their controls in preparation for an attack. "Just give us the signal, Aelita," he relayed.

Aelita looked at the radar again and saw that the blips were coming in more quickly than she imagined. "No time to deploy you guys. I'll need to..." She stopped as she looked at her radar once more and saw that the blips were about to arrive at their spot. "Too late," she said. "Brace for impact!"

Everyone tensed up their muscles and closed their eyes, expecting an attack to hit them at any moment. Instead of a violent shaking of metal, however, nothing had happened. Yumi opened her eyes and looked outside of her cockpit window. "Guys!" she called out in an excited voice. "You have to see this."

Odd opened his eyes and looked outside, unable to speak. Ulrich looked at the sight around him. "Wow," he exclaimed softly.

"What's going on?" Jeremie asked, worried that no one was telling him what was going on.

"It's all right," Aelita answered. "They're friendly." She looked outside and saw a school of creatures swimming around the skid. The creatures resembled dolphins but were smaller in stature. The bodies were clear, revealing the translucent skeleton helping to give the creature it's shape. As they moved gracefully around the water, the group noticed that there was no symbol of XANA to be found on them. "Are you seeing this Jeremie?" she asked. "They're beautiful."

Jeremie sighed as he looked at his monitor. "Sorry, Aelita, but all I see is a basic reading of your location," he stated. "Just a grid and some blips. Nothing more."

"This is one of the few wonderful things in this virtual world. I wish you could see this in person," she thought out loudly as the dolphins swam away.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to decline that offer," he said with nervous laughter. "Remember, the last time I tried taking a trip to Lyoko, I got stuck in limbo."

"Yes," Aelita confirmed, "but the last time you got stuck in limbo, you and I actually got to merge our minds and bodies together. You have to admit it was interesting, right?"

"Yeah... interesting... very, y'know, interesting," Jeremie stammered, remembering that while the experience was a bit traumatic, he did enjoy it for a few unethical reasons. "Um, why isn't anyone saying anything?" he asked, half expecting someone to make a snide comment already.

"Maybe it's because I activated a private communications setting," she said, an air of slyness apparent in her voice.

Jeremie shook himself to regain his senses. "When did you put that function in the skid?" He inquired.

Aelita smiled. "A while back when we built the first skid together," she answered. "You just never paid attention to it until now." Back at the factory, all Jeremie could do was smile, realizing that his friend could be successfully sneaky if she so desired.

"Hey, Aelita, I didn't realize that Lyoko had some beautiful creatures living in it." Yumi expected an answer but received nothing in return. "Aelita, do you copy?"

"Yoohoo! Princess, you there?" Odd called out.

"Something go wrong with Aelita's intercom?" Ulrich asked.

Yumi brought up a list of communication channels available on the skid. While she wasn't as proficient as Aelita with the mechanics of the skid, she was much better than both Ulrich and Odd. "Looks like Aelita's on a private channel."

"Gee, I wonder who she could be talking to," Ulrich said with a hint of sarcasm.

Yumi giggled a bit. "You ever think they'll just give up and tell each other how they feel?" she asked.

"Eventually," he replied. "I think they're just both to shy to admit anything right now."

"After all this time, you'd think that it would have happened already," she commented.

Ulrich said nothing. Instead, he waited for Odd to come up with some witty comment about how he and Yumi should have gotten together as well. The remark, however, never came. "Funny," he said, "I would have thought Odd would jump at the opportunity to say something right about now."

"He would have if I didn't put us on a private channel," Yumi noted.

Ulrich chuckled. "I think I'm starting to like this private channel thing."

"Guys?" Odd called out. "Yumi? Ulrich? Hello?" It didn't take long for him to realize that he had been shut out from all of the communication channels everyone else was on. "Must be nice to have a private channel to talk on," he thought out loud. "Oh well, time to work out my pipes." Without any fear of being ridiculed or told to stop, the purple fighter began to sing.

The skid began to slow down as Aelita opened all communication channels, overriding any privacy commands. "We've reached section three," she announced.

Ulrich and Yumi immediately stopped their conversation once they heard Aelita's voice. Odd, however, heard nothing and kept right on singing.

"... lo-lo-love, makes the world go 'round."

"Odd," Aelita called out.

"Love, love, love, lo-lo-love..."

"Odd," Ulrich called out, hoping to end the misery.

"... makes the world..."

"ODD!" Yumi shouted.

Odd jumped in his chair, the sound of Yumi's voice both serving to break him out of his trance as well as break his ear drums. "Wha... what?" he asked.

Aelita stifled a laugh. "We're at section three now." She hit the command on her display, causing the bay doors to open and slowly deploy the bomb. "Map bomb deployed."

The resident Einstein placed his focus once more on his secondary window. Within a few moments, he activated the shield on the third map bomb. "Shield's up for the device," he relayed. "One more to go and this mission is over."

"Yes!" Odd cheered. "Then it'll be pudding cup time."

Ulrich smiled. "You can have mine, too, as long as you promise never to sing in the skid again." Everyone laughed as Odd began to grumble about how his friends had no taste in music.


	4. Kongres

The group had already accomplished plenty during their mission. Three of the four map bombs had already been put in place, fully shielded to protect them from XANA's attacks. The energy level on the skid was still very high and the group was already halfway to the final drop point. Everything up to that point had gone according to plan.

"So, Ulrich, do you vote this most boring mission yet?" Odd asked.

"What's wrong, Odd? You like getting blasted by XANA's monsters all the time?" he challenged him.

Odd shook his head. "I just like action, that's all."

At that moment, Jeremie noticed a solitary dot appear on the radar. "Hey, you guys have another creature coming your way on the left side of the skid," he said.

"Another dolphin?" Yumi inquired.

Jeremie leaned in closer towards his monitor. "Not sure," he said, "but it's coming in fast. Faster than before."

Aelita took a look outside her cockpit window and faced left. She tilted her head and saw a fairly sizable creature with an armored piranha head headed straight for them. She gasped when she realized what the creature was. "That's a kongres!" she shouted. She tried turning the craft to face the creature but the turning speed was much slower than the incoming creature. The lone kongres made a kamikaze run towards the craft, damaging the skid while destroying itself in the process. The force of the impact caused the skid to spin violently in the digital waters. "Hang on!" she exclaimed as she tried to get the vehicle stabilized. Moments later, the spinning had stopped and the craft lay still. "Is everyone alright?" Aelita asked.

"I'm good," Yumi relayed to the rest of the crew. ""How's everyone else?"

Ulrich responded first. "I'm alright. Odd, what about you?"

Odd groaned before answering. "It's a good thing our uniforms clean themselves after every trip because I think I'm going to be wearing my lunch."

The monitor at the factory came alive with activity. "I don't think you'll have time to puke," Jeremie said. "Looks like XANA finally got wise to what we're doing."

"What are we looking at, Jeremie?" Ulrich asked.

The operator tried to get a rough estimate of how many dots he was seeing on-screen. "I lost count," he admitted, "but if their speed is any indication, you're looking at schools of kongresses."

"Numbers game again," he said to himself. "Aelita..."

"Way ahead of you, Ulrich," she interrupted. The pilot reached for the control panel and released all three of the skidbladnir's fighter pods. "Nav skids released."

"Do whatever it takes," Jeremie reminded them. "Just make sure the skid gets to the final drop point."

"You heard him, boys," Yumi said as she activated her thrusters and entered the fray, attacking any creature she came across. 

Ulrich piloted his craft in another direction. "So, Odd, this enough action for you?" he asked.

Odd pulled the trigger on his controls, killing off two kongresses in rapid order. "It'll do for now," he said, satisfied that his thirst for action had finally been quenched.

Aelita began to pilot the skid through the mess, pressing forward as the rest of the team blasted down the enemy to clear a path for her. Just when she thought that the situation would be handled well, a laser blast hit the rear of the vehicle, causing a significant amount of damage to the skid. Aelita looked at her radar and saw a blip with a completely different signature than that of the kongresses or her teammates. "William!"

From the sea of enemies and gunfire emerged a black craft similar to the skid's fighter pods. Inside the vehicle was a man who traded in a large sword for laser cannons as his weapon of choice. He pulled the trigger but was unsuccessful in hitting his target. Instead of a direct hit, the laser blasts barely nicked the skid.

Yumi caught a glance of the skid while she was still fighting and saw Aelita's attacker. "Hang on, Aelita," she called out. "I'll tear him a new one for coming after us."

"Forget about him," she replied. "Just make sure I've got a clear path to the drop site." She hit a few buttons on her control panel to bring up her shields. Activating them slowed her down a bit but it was necessary to prevent the skid from taking any more damage. Meanwhile, William gave chase, shooting at the skid to try and destroy the shields.

Yumi groaned as she continued her attack on the kongresses. While she did want to fight William again, she knew that the mission was more important. The faster she got rid of the creatures, the faster she could get to Aelita and protect from her traitorous friend.

Ulrich pulled the trigger, successfully hitting a kongres with one shot. He had a few creatures left to eliminate before his section was done. "Odd, how are you doing on your side?" he asked.

The human feline locked on to his opponent and fired, piercing the skin of the creature and causing it to disappear into lines of code. "All done on my side," he replied. "You need me to help out Yumi?"

"Take care of William," he ordered. "We need that last map bomb to get there intact."

"Roger that," Odd responded. He went forward then shot upwards, performing a barrel roll as he turned around. He locked on to William's craft and fired a shot, hitting the target and knocking him away from his path towards the skid. "Yes!" he exclaimed, cocking his arm back as he swam by, hoping that the shot and the pass would press William away from Aelita and into following him instead. As he turned around to confirm things, he saw the black vehicle turn towards his position and fire a shot. Odd fired a shot of his own and watched as the two projectiles collided with each other, nullifying them both. He made another pass at William, hoping to get his attention once more. He looked down at his radar and saw that he was being followed. "Hey, Aelita," he said. "I got tall, dark and creepy off your tail. You should have smooth sailing from here on out."

Aelita checked her radar and saw that William was moving farther away from her and getting closer to Odd. "Thanks. I owe you one," she replied.

"Pudding cup?" he asked, hoping to grab as much of the dessert as possible after the mission was completed.

A new voice came through the speakers of the craft. "Sorry, Odd, but it's too early in the relationship for us to have nicknames."

Odd recognized the voice immediately. He tapped the screen on his control panel and saw that all of the communication channels were blocked except for one. The blond-haired boy knew that this was going to be a one on one conversation. "Hey, William," he asked, "don't you have anything better to do than to bother us? You know, like homework? Watching a movie? Getting you head examined?"

William responded with a low and villainous chuckle. "I'm trying to be environmentally friendly here. You and your friends insist on polluting the waters of Lyoko. I'm here to make sure trash like you gets eliminated," he said as he fired off a shot aimed for Odd's ship.

The targeted ship dove to avoid the blast with William's craft following closely behind. Odd looked at his radar, making sure that William was always on his tail. "I hope Aelita gets to the drop point soon," he said to himself as he turned left, hoping he could distract his pursuer long enough for the mission to succeed.


	5. William and the Kalamar

With the school of kongresses thinned out and pushed forward, the skidbladnir made it to the final drop point. "I made it to the drop point," Aelita relayed to the rest of the team. "Yumi? Ulrich? How are you guys doing?"

Ulrich's laser blast connected with another kongres, watching the creature data fade away into the void. "Just a few more to go and we can go help out Odd," he said.

Jeremie checked up on the status of the previous three map bombs and saw that they were untouched at the moment. "Plant the bomb, Aelita," he said over the communications system. "The faster he bomb is placed, the faster I can get you guys out of there and detonate this thing."

"Roger that." Aelita entered the command on her control panel just as she did the first three times. However, instead of getting a confirmation that the bomb was going to be put in place, she received an error warning instead. Perplexed by this, she entered the commands again and got the same result. "Um, Jeremie, we have a problem."

"What do you mean we have a problem?" he asked.

Aelita tapped on the control panel and got the same result for the third time. "I'm getting an error with the dropping mechanism," she said as she continued to enter the drop command over and over.

Jeremie sat up in his chair and brought up a live diagram of the skid's status. He clicked on the body of the ship and began to type on the keyboard, his face filled with panic as he discovered just what the error was. "The dropping mechanism got stuck!" he exclaimed. "It must have happened when that kongres collided with the skid."

"So, now what?" she asked.

"Shield up and hold your position," he ordered. "I'll try to fix things on my end. Hopefully this won't take very long." As he hit a few keys, he turned his attention to Yumi and Ulrich. "You guys done with those pests yet?" he asked.

Yumi shot a laser blast that made quick work of a kongres. "Done!" she announced. "Ulrich, I can stay here and watch over Aelita. You should go help Odd take care of William."

"You got it." He turned his craft around and headed for Odd's last known whereabouts. As he began his trip, he looked up from his cockpit and noticed something odd. "What is that thing?" he asked.

Yumi turned her vehicle around and saw a large object diving for the skid. "I'm not sure but I can bet it's not good."

Aelita looked up and saw a squid-like creature coming straight for her. "Oh no," she said. "XANA sent over a kalamar." She made sure the shields were at full strength and winced as the creature landed on top of the shield, causing it to flicker. Realizing that I did not land on the craft itself, the creature unveiled it's drill and began to work on destroying the shield. The shield flickered again as the bit of the drill made contact with the shield, the strength of the protective layering being sapped away every second.

Yumi immediately targeted the creature and fired off a few shots of her laser gun. Each shot missed the creature's XANA eye, hitting the body instead. Instead of bouncing off of the creature, however, the shots were absorbed into the body, causing little to no effect at all on the monster. "Crap!" she exclaimed as she turned to make another pass at the attacker.

"You need help, Yumi?" Ulrich asked.

Yumi responded by grunting. "Odd's going to need more help. I can handle things from here."

"But..."

"Get going!" she ordered. "I've got this."

Ulrich progressed forward. While he knew Odd could handle himself against William, he knew better than to argue against his good friend. He traveled a bit and saw Odd still being pursued by William, ducking and dodging all of the shots the enemy had fired. "Need help there, bud?" he asked but got no response. He hit some keys on the console to view the communications status between all of the skids. Every channel was clear except for Odd's; his displayed a blocked sign instead. While he wasn't worried before, Ulrich suddenly began to get concerned about his friend's status. Not wasting any more time, he fired of a shot and hit the tail end of William's craft.

William's body jerked when he felt the impact of the lasers on the ship. He looked at his radar and saw that Ulrich had arrived to help out his friend. "I don't have time to play with you, Ulrich," he replied. "Just leave me alone while I deal with this little pest over here."

"Can't do that, William," he responded. "You mess with him, you mess with me."

"Fine," he said as he began to turn his ship around. "I'll go play with Aelita instead."

Odd turned his ship around and swam alongside Ulrich, both pursuing William. Odd noticed that the communications blocker he had was lifted and decided to contact Ulrich. "What were you doing?" he asked with a bit of anger in his voice.

"I was saving your hide," he replied with the same angry tone. "That should get a 'thank you', don't you think?"

"Not when you just ruined my plan to drive William away from Aelita so she could plant the bomb in peace," he answered back.

Ulrich cringed. He realized that he could have possibly jeopardized the mission. He also realized that he had to help fix things fast. "Now what? Try shooting him down until he blows up?"

"Not unless you want him permanently dead!" Jeremie reminded them. "Even though he does tend to dive into the digital sea every now and then, we don't know if he can survive long enough before XANA saves him."

Odd snapped his fingers. "I got an idea," he said. "Follow my lead." Both he and Ulrich accelerated to catch up to William, flanking him on either side. "Squeeze play!" Odd shouted as both he and Ulrich moved their nav skids to either side of William's craft, pressing them on both sides so that the ship could only move forward and whichever side the boys dictated it should move.

"What are you doing?" William demanded as he tried to move the ship in vain.

"Don't worry about it," Ulrich responded as he and Odd forced the ship away from the skidbladnir.

Yumi grunted. After several passes on the kalamar, she could not seem to get in a shot that could hit the creature's XANA eye. Al of her shots either missed completely or were absorbed by the creature's skin. Meanwhile, she could see that the shield's color was starting to fade, a sign that the shield could break at any moment. "How's the shield holding up, Aelita?" she asked.

"Not good" she responded as she took a look at her monitor. The shield energy levels had dropped well below twenty-five percent. If the attacks continued any longer, she could be looking at single digit readings soon.

Yumi shook her head in frustration. "That's it!" she shouted in anger. She took her nav skid farther than before and began to take another pass at the kalamar. This time, however, she shut off her laser cannons and applied that energy to her engines, increasing her speed dramatically.

Jeremie saw the changes to the nav skid happening on his monitor. "Yumi, what are you doing?"

"Getting desperate," she replied as she increased her speed even further.

The boy genius looked at his screen again. After analyzing the modified status of the nav skid and the direction it was heading to, he finally understood what she was going to do. "Don't do it!" he shouted. "None of the vehicles were built for ramming other creatures, especially the nav skids. "You could..."

Yumi muted her communicator. She knew the risks and didn't want someone reminding her how risky this was going to be. She increased her speed even more as she locked on to the kalamar, With a few meters to go, she closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, bracing for impact. A few seconds later, the vehicle collided with the creature, hitting it with enough force to knock it far away from the skidbladnir. Yumi opened her eyes and rubbed her head. The force of impact between her and the kalamar was strong and the sound of metal crashing against the creature's hide was even louder. She looked at her control panel and saw that, while the nav skid had sustained major damage, it was still maneuverable. She reactivated her communications systems and made contact with Aelita. "That should buy you some more time."

Aelita looked at her control panel and saw that her shields were at ten percent. "Thanks, Yumi. You're a life saver." She turned her attention to Jeremie. "Have you gotten the repairs done yet, Jeremie?"

Jeremie continued to click on the keyboard. "Not even close" he replied with frustration. "I can't figure out how to fix this."

Aelita felt his frustration. In a small fit of anger, she slammed her first on the control panel of the skidbladnir.

"What did you do?" Jeremie asked.

Realizing what she had done, Aelita came to her senses. "Oops. Um... sorry about that."

"Don't be," he replied. "Whatever you did, you fixed it!"

She looked at her monitor and saw that the ship's dropping mechanism was functional again. Within moments, the bomb was set in place. "The last bomb is ready," she relayed.

Jeremie quickly placed his focus on his remote desktop. Soon the last shield was placed around the final map bomb. "Everyone, back to the skid. Aelita, I've sent you coordinates on the closest docking bay to your position. Get out of there before any more surprises happen."

"You heard the boss," Yumi relayed to everyone as she docked with the skid. "Dock back to the skid ASAP."

"Hey, Ulrich," Odd said, "I thought you were the leader."

"Only on the field, man," he answered. "So, you want to take care of William here?"

Odd nodded. "On the count of three," he replied.

"1... 2... 3!"

Ulrich stopped pressing against William's ship and dove deeper into the digital sea. Meanwhile, Odd placed more force on his turn, pushing William's craft and giving him the inability to take control of it for some time. "Done and done," he said as they both made their way to the skid and docked. As the final two nav skids attached themselves to the skidbladnir once more, the kalamar swam back to their area and aimed for the ship.

"Hang on!" she exclaimed as she deactivated her shields and redirected the energy to the engine, giving her enough power to move before the creature landed on the ship and resumed it's attack. This time, however, the kalamar landed on the map bomb and began to drill away at the shield. "Is it going to hold, Jeremie?" she asked.

Jeremie checked on the shield around the bomb and saw that it's integrity was dropping at a very slow pace. "It's strong, but I didn't design it to withstand direct physical attacks," he answered. "You guys better get out of there quick so I can detonate this thing." With that, the crew sped off to find the closest docking bay marked on the map. Moments later, the warriors entered the dock and were devirtualized back to the factory.


	6. The New Lyoko

"We're home!" Odd screamed as he stepped out of his scanning pod and waved to a nearby surveillance camera.

Jeremie looked at his monitor and saw that all four of his friends had been present in the scanning room. He turned his attention to the rest of the screen and took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," he whispered as he hit a button to initiate the detonation sequence.

The shield around each of the four map bombs had been disabled, leaving them vulnerable to the elements. While the first three devices were safe, the fourth was still under attack by one of XANA's kalamars. Before the creature's drill bit could touch the exterior of the bomb, however, the device exploded. The force of the blast destroying every fragment of the creature's being. William had finally gained control of his ship again when he got caught up in the blast, cutting off all of the power to his ship entirely. As he drifted aimlessly in the digital sea, William grunted and banged on the cockpit window, frustrated that he could not stop the Lyoko warriors from accomplishing their mission.

The metal door to the elevator opened as the four warriors emerged with smiles on their faces. "Mission accomplished!" Odd shouted triumphantly. He noticed, however, that the fifth member of the team was not in the mood for smiling. "What's wrong, Jer?" he asked.

Jeremie stood in front of the supercomputer terminal with his arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his face. "That is, by far, some of the riskiest moves I have ever seen you guys do since we built the skid. Those things were built to withstand laser blasts, not full on physical attacks, and they certainly weren't built to ram other creatures or grind against other things. Do you guys have any idea how long it will take to get those things repaired?" he asked. Odd raised his hand before being cut off by Jeremie. "WEEKS!" he exclaimed as he threw his hands in the air. "At this rate, I'll never get any sleep!"

"But we did get the job done," Aelita piped up. "That has to count for something, right?"

Jeremie took of his glasses and sighed as he rubbed his face. "Yeah, you guys got it done. The bombs exploded and the nanobots made it out alive."

"So why don't we see the map changing now?" Yumi asked.

Jeremie adjusted his glasses. "The nanobots weren't designed to transmit the information right away," he answered. "It'll take them about twenty four hours before we can get a complete reading of the new Lyoko map. In the meantime, we should head back. I might as well get started on the repairs and improvements to the skid."

"And I should get started on all those pudding cups you guys owe me," Odd added as they all made their way out of the factor and back to Kadic.

The metal doors to the elevator opened as all five of the Lyoko warriors stepped out into the control room. A day had already passed since the bombs had detonated and they were all curious to see what the results of the cartography mission were. Jeremie sat in his chair and checked on the progress the nanobots had made since the previous day. "Fascinating," he said to himself.

"What happened?" Ulrich asked.

Jeremie tapped on a few keys and brought up the hologram of the old Lyoko map. "As you guys already know, this was how Lyoko used to look like before we shut down the supercomputer the first time." He tapped on another key before continuing. "And this is the new Lyoko map."

The group looked in awe at the new map on the holographic display. What was once a small sphere surrounded by a few rings and sea of nothingness had changed dramatically. While the sphere had not grown much larger than before, the rings had multiplied in number and the sea had a denser yellow color to it. "XANA sure got busy," Odd noted.

"Indeed," Jeremie said as he began to describe what all of the changes of the map meant. "Just like before, he rings represent the different sectors on Lyoko and the yellow gas represents the digital sea." He began to highlight some of the sectors on the map. "Thanks to your previous visits on the new Lyoko, we know that this is the ice sector, that's the new mountain sector, and that is the brand new volcano sector. The forest sector is now here and the desert sector is here. It also looks like the nanobots got a better reading on a few other sectors. I'm seeing a swamp sector here, a jungle sector here and a metropolis sector there. Everything else couldn't be read as clearly but at least we know that we have actual land there instead of digital sea."

"What about the digital sea?" Aelita asked. "Did we get any new info about it?"

"That's where things get even more fascinating," he replied as he clicked on a few keys and removed the rings from the map. "As you guys can see, the digital sea is still huge and sector five is still at the center of Lyoko." Jeremie pointed to the random empty spots in the sea. "However, we did have random parts that the nanobots failed to cover."

"Couldn't the nanobots have just died there before mapping it out?" Yumi asked.

Jeremie shook his head. "If they did, the density of the map would have thinned out before it stopped," he explained. "This is just too abrupt of a change. One of two things could have happened here. Either XANA was able to stop the nanobots in these sectors or..." He took a deep breath before continuing. "We may have narrowed down the search for Dr. Shaeffer."

The group stood there in silence. While Schaeffer was a great asset to the team in the past, he remained very elusive to track down for both Jeremie and XANA. "So, what do we do?" Ulrich asked.

"Not much we can do," Jeremie answered. "We can't go looking for him since we might accidentally lead XANA to him. All we can do is make sure that XANA doesn't get hold of this information." With that, Jeremie locked down the computer as the group left the factory, hoping that a XANA attack wouldn't happen anytime soon.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

_Story #11 is done. The idea to do this episode seemed logical enough. With Lyoko being rebuilt, it would make sense for XANA to go ahead and change things up a bit to confuse our heroes and it would also make sense for those heroes to try and get a better idea for how Lyoko looks like now with those changes made. While the idea was simple enough, writing it was painful, especially the big action pieces in the latter half of the fic. Now for some notes._

_-Dolphins: What I noticed in the show was that Lyoko had only one type of creature: hostile. It's funny to see that there were no other types of creatures living in the virtual world that wanted to do anything else but fight. The dolphin is an original creation designed to show that docile life in Lyoko does exist, even if it's only in the digital sea._

_-Maps: Funny thing about the title is that it's a little more than generic for me. I got the title and story idea while playing Rock Band. The game features a song by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs called Maps. I liked the song a lot and the chorus gets stuck in my head every once in a while. I wanted to use the title for a fic chapter but instead opted for a full blown fic title._

_And that's all for the notes. The next fic is going to be a oneshot deal before I continue on with the rest of the episodes. My mind is burning out a bit on action sequences (the next few fics will have some of those in there) and I'm not getting the feedback I expected from the story arc so far. I need to step back from it for about a story or two before I feel I can be recharged on it again. Aside from that, the one shot I'm going after next should help prepare me for another story I'm writing in the arc that will carry a similar tone to it._

_Till next time._


End file.
